Millennium Cookbook: Extraordinary Vegetarian Cuisine at Chef2Chef

Some of the dishes are simple to prepare, but most are intricate and time consuming and include subrecipes, making this book best for artistic cooks who revel in new, inventive recipes. For example, the recipe for luscious Moroccan Filo Crescents with Curried Golden Tomato Sauce (only 21 percent fat, despite the filo) takes more than a page, and references three other recipes. All recipes are vegan--no meat, eggs, or dairy--and most are very low in fat. Nutritional breakdown is provided for each recipe, and the food photos are gorgeous. The Millennium Cookbook is an impeccable gift for the inspired cook in your life. --Joan Price --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

From Booklist
No, this isn't a cookbook for those expecting the imminent end of the world. Its name comes from San Francisco's popular vegan restaurant, Millennium. As more people follow vegetarian regimes for the health benefits of low-fat cooking, an upscale restaurant catering to their needs is a welcome phenomenon. Millennium takes food very seriously, and it raises vegan cuisine to new levels. Although tempeh substitutes for meat in a number of recipes, there's a welcome absence of vegetarian chilis and lasagnas. Instead, chefs make use of both ordinary and uncommon grains and flavor them with lots of lively seasonings, such as chipotle peppers. In conformance with vegan rules, dairy products are taboo, so the dessert recipes make use of milk substitutes. Serious vegetarians looking for diet variety will eagerly welcome the new horizons this cookbook opens, but reproducing these vegan recipes successfully at home demands no little kitchen savvy. Mark Knoblauch

Reader Reviews
This review is from: The Millennium Cookbook: Extraordinary Vegetarian Cuisine (Paperback) The layout of the book was lovely and crisp -- nice photos,roomy margins for notes. The recipes are delicious and since thereare few vegan cookbook collections out there, vegans will LOVE it! For entertaining or more elaborate menus it's a real treat! For the average cook or the average palate -- it's going to be hit or miss. I would not suggest this book to a new vegetarian or a non-vegetarian trying to incoporate a few vegetarian meals a week into their diet. For them I'd point to 1,001 Low-Fat Vegetarian Recipes by Sue Spitler or The McDougall Quick & Easy Cookbook by Mary McDougall, John A., M.D. McDougall Most of the recipes in Millenium rely heavily on fresh, quality ingredients and herbs and spices that will be difficult to find in a "regular" grocery. If they are there, they might not be fresh, because they don't sell as often in a regular store and this will affect the resulting dish. Ingredients that sit on the shelf gathering dust and losing flavor, particularly herbs and spices that these recipes rely on, are NOT going to yield tasty results. While vegans/vegetarians with experience shopping at other places will have no problem, the average person will be a little puzzled as to where to find shiitake, miso, tofu, anise, fennel, nutritional yeast, Rice Dream, etc. The busy person will also not have time to deal with making these recipes -- they require more effort, skill, time. Those with more experience will find the recipes easy to follow, those who work primarly from cans, pre-made mixes, and 5 or less ingredients might find the recipes daunting and they might find cooking gourmet fare from scratch a challenge. While the rewards are delicious, this isn't the cookbook I'd head to on a tiring Monday night after work! The recipes are also generous with 6-8 servings -- in my 2 person family, it's too much food for us. You can expect to have to adjust the numbers if you are a small family. Overall I think it was a wonderful book, and a welcome addition to my collection. I'd still put it towards the "advanced" end of the spectrum though. Comment | Permalink | (Report this)